text:
Every day should be decarbonization day
At COP27, Decarbonization Day revolves around finding solutions to cut carbon globally, with the overarching goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. While it's great to see these much-needed discussions happening, we feel it's equally important to focus on what we can already do today, making an immediate impact by cutting emissions where we already can—and when: today.
Decarbonization Day at COP27
The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP27, features multiple 'thematic days' revolving around important topics focusing on combatting the climate crisis we are currently facing. Although we are glad to see that decarbonization is steadfastly on the agenda, we firmly believe more action is needed to get actual decarbonization done.
Every day is Decarbonization Day
For the record, we applaud all efforts that enable present and future initiatives to lower our society's carbon emissions (and remove excess carbon from our planet's air and waters). We also encourage the discussions that decision-makers have on a global scale on how to cut carbon emissions worldwide. So, seeing the topic of decarbonization as a dedicated thematic day on the COP27 agenda is a step in the right direction. But we must warn decision-makers to avoid focusing too much on future scenarios while overlooking the solutions already available today. At GoodFuels, every day is decarbonization day. Together with our partners and industry leaders, we are already actively decarbonizing the global shipping industry by doing what we can already do today: replacing fossil fuels with cleaner alternatives and cutting 80-90% of lifecycle emissions daily.
Decarbonizing together
From 2015 onwards, we have worked with major shipowners, engine makers, feedstock producers and other industry partners to perfect our blends of sustainable biofuels. Together, we streamline our supply chain and develop a high level of technical support, from a broad organizational readiness level to supporting the engine room crew to be entirely comfortable working with our fuels. By continuing to collaborate with (local) governments and port authorities, we are constantly pushing to enable easier uptake of sustainable biofuels for shippers across the globe. We are also proud to contribute to allowing entire industries to make the switch, as is currently happening in the cruise segment, where cruise companies are pushing hard to provide their guests with a lower-emission journey.
The landscape of future marine fuels is complex on many fronts. Different fuel types already exist or are currently in development, each on a different technological readiness level. In addition to requiring years and years of research and infrastructure development for most future fuels to become available in a sustainable, affordable and scalable way, practically all future fuels need modifications to existing engine infrastructures or require the purchase of new vessels. As a solution to the swift need for global marine decarbonization, sustainable biofuels are different in many ways. They are readily available in many parts of the world and can drop into existing diesel engines without changing or adding anything to their design.
With an average lifespan of 25-30 years (for container and bulk vessels), shipowners will continue to need cleaner alternatives for their existing diesel-based cargo ships for the next few decades. Therefore, we expect the market for sustainable biofuels to scale rapidly over the next few years and confidently predict that drop-in biofuels will be a significant part of the marine fuel mix for decades.
Making a difference in the biofuels' sphere
GoodShipping Program hands cargo owners control of their carbon footprint
GoodFuels Marine receives highest standard certification for its sustainable marine biofuels
Boskalis, Wärtsilä and GoodFuels Marine launch sustainable marine biofuels programme
Ready to explore more?


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Lohstöter, Jürgen, 1947- 2006
A short biography of a founder of the German ORA and activist of the anarcho-syndicalist FAU, Jurgen Lohstöter.
Jurgen Lohstöter was born on December 23rd 1947 in Hamburg. He became interested in anarchist ideas from an early age and in 1969 meetings were held in the basement of his parents' house, attended by among others, old comrades from the pre- and post-war period, When organisations along the lines of the French Organisation Revolutionnaire Anarchiste were being set up throughout Europe in the early 70s, Jurgen was involved in founding the German Organisation Revolutionärer Anarchisten in 1972 (similar developments took place in Britain, Denmark and Italy). He served on its international secretariat. He was involved in local struggles against the building of the Ottensen bypass. He also contributed to Otto Reimers' anarchist magazine Zeitgeist.
In 1977 he joined the local branch of the recently formed Freie Arbeiter Union (FAU) in Hamburg, and was active in it, as far as it was possible, up to his death. A debilitating kidney disease put him out of action for long periods and he had to have two kidney transplants. He trained to work in merchant shipping but lack of work there meant he had to work in a large insurance company as a temp or a travelling salesman. He was valued within the FAU branch for his lack of personal vanity and his sound advice during internal discussions, particularly on international matters.
He died on 9th September 2006 of a heart attack at the age of 58.
Many thanks to Sally, who contacted libcom and provided us with a photograph
Steven.
Nov 26 2007 10:33
Working on a decaying dream - Kollectiv
The Kollectiv look at Bruce Springsteen in the context of class disintegration and place him firmly in the decadent tradition of Balzac and Huysmans – Á Rebours to Run?
Flint 1936-7: Diary of a sitdowner
The diary of one of the striking General Motors workers who occupied their factories between December 1936 and February 1937.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This pizza is a refreshing change from your standard tomato sauce and pepperoni pie. If you are a seafood lover, give this a try – it is rich and fresh all at once; and the squeeze of lemon at the end is a must!
1 ball of good quality pizza dough. I used my hockey bread dough recipe.
Combine the clams, garlic, parsley, 2tbsp olive oil and paprika in a bowl and mix well. Marinate in the fridge for at 2-3 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees once clams have finished marintating.
Cover a large cookie sheet with parchment paper (you can also use a pizza stone and omit the parchment).
Roll dough into circle or rectangle large enough to cover your baking pan and brush with remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Spread clam mixture evenly across dough and top with cheeses and pepper.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until crust is crisp on the bottom and top is bubbling and golden.
Dress each slice with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a sprinkle of sea salt before serving. Delish!


text:
What's driving the day in Westminster. Politics and policymaking in the UK capital.
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POLITICO London Playbook: Trump's big speech — Work wars — Ed Davey victory lap
By Charlie Cooper
August 28, 2020 8:10 am CET
Presented by Barclays.
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BREAKING THIS MORNING: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe has expressed his intention to step down as a result of his declining health, according to Japan's NHK television and other local media. AP has a write-up.
Good Friday morning. This is Charlie Cooper, covering for regular Friday Playbooker Emilio Casalicchio.
TRUMP'S BIG SPEECH: Donald Trump controversially used the White House itself as a backdrop for a long, predictably inflammatory speech as he concluded the Republican National Convention and formally accepted the nomination to run for four more years. The speech wrapped up only a couple of hours ago and set the tone for what looks likely to be the most vicious campaign since, erm, the last one. The whole thing ended with a pyrotechnic display at the Washington Monument with fireworks spelling out "TRUMP 2020." POLITICO's team in Washington has a rundown of the key moments from the last night of the RNC.
Fear and loathing: Trump accused Joe Biden of wanting to give "free rein to violent anarchists," warning that "no one will be safe" in America should he win. Calling it "the most important election in the history of our country," he actually concluded with a sentiment Biden would probably agree with: "There has never been such a difference between two parties, or two individuals, in ideology, philosophy or vision than there is right now."
Quote: "Joe Biden is not a savior of America's soul, he is the destroyer of America's jobs, and if given the chance he will be the destroyer of American greatness."
Vaccine pledge: Trump also committed the U.S. to producing a coronavirus vaccine "before the end of the year or maybe even sooner." Rehearsing a familiar attack on Biden, he said that China wanted his opponent to win and pledged to hold Beijing "fully accountable for the tragedy that they caused all over the world," should he win.
My dad, the tweeter: Trump was introduced onto the flag-festooned stage (in front of a large, not very socially distanced, largely maskless audience) by his daughter and adviser Ivanka, who told supporters: "I recognize that my dad's communication style is not to everyone's taste and I know that his tweets can feel a bit unfiltered. But the results. The results speak for themselves." In a not-at-all cringe moment she added: "Dad, people attack you for being unconventional, but I love you for being real."
BIDEN HITS THE ROAD: Meanwhile, Axios reports Joe Biden will start campaigning in person in key swing states, but pledged not to violate any state rules on the number of people allowed to assemble in one place.
DRIVING THE DAY
WORK WARS: Back home, your morning commute (or lack thereof) is fast becoming the big political battleground as Westminster gears up for its return next week. The Telegraph and the Times both splash on calls from Tory MPs, and indeed within government, for No. 10 to do more to convince a still cautious population that returning to the workplace is safe. A new government publicity campaign extolling the benefits of returning to the workplace and giving advice to firms on making workplaces COVID-secure will launch next week, officials confirmed to Playbook last night.
But but but … Two government figures told Playbook the campaign will not be adopting the tone of the Telegraph's eye-catching splash headline: "Go back to work or risk losing your job." The paper quotes government sources making veiled threats about the risk to employees who choose to carry on working from home. "We need workers to be alert to what decisions their bosses may take in the weeks ahead. If they are only seeing workers once a fortnight then that could prove problematic for some employees in the future … Suddenly the word 'restructure' is bandied about and people who have been working from home find themselves in the most vulnerable position," one says.
Err … what? It would be a bold messaging shift if the government which told us to stay at home to save lives and pumped tens of billions of pounds into protecting jobs now flipped to "get to the office or lose your job." No surprise then, that this is not how No. 10 sees it. "This is a deeply irresponsible headline with no truth behind it," one government source said last night. "Our priority has always and will always be protecting people's jobs."
What's going on? Clearly however, some people in government want the return to the workplace message to get tougher; and they have plenty of cheerleaders in the press. One Cabinet minister tells the Telegraph they expect firms will review "how productive" staff working from home have been. "Companies will realize some people weren't working as hard as they thought," the Cabinet minister says.
Or not … An actual expert, Tony Wilson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies, told BBC Newsnight it was "very unlikely" employers would be making such threats against their workers, with most offering choice to employees around working from home or coming into the office. "We're in the middle of a really deep recession and we're in the middle of a public health crisis … we need to be careful about potentially fear-mongering and making people feel threatened," he added.
Whitehall will lead the way … oh: No. 10's hopes that Whitehall departments would blaze a trail for the return to the office seem to have run up against the cold reality that a whole lot of people just don't feel safe yet. The Times quotes Cabinet sources who report "only one in 10 officials in the Cabinet Office and the Treasury had returned to the workplace after resistance from the unions."
Cabinet split? The lead voice of caution in the Cabinet would appear to be Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who told Times Radio yesterday that he cared more about whether his department's staff were working effectively, not where it is they're working. The Times reports Chancellor Rishi Sunak has "clashed with Mr Hancock amid concerns about the economic damage being caused by the lockdown." The hit to town and city centers was illustrated in stark terms last night, with Pret A Manger confirming nearly 3,000 job losses yesterday evening — more than a third of its workforce. The BBC has the story.
What does the public think? According to a YouGov poll yesterday only 31 percent of people think firms whose staff have been working from home should now be encouraging them to back, while 47 percent say they shouldn't. Only among the over 65s do more people support businesses encouraging workers back in.
Pot, kettle etc: Believe it or not the typically placid and serene Richard Littlejohn is quite up in arms about the whole situation in the Daily Mail. "You can hear them every single day on radio phone-ins, boasting smugly about their exciting new 'work/life balance' and the amount of money they are saving on their railway season tickets," he says of those selfish, selfish home-workers. "What never seems to dawn on them is that one man's WFH [Working From Home] is another man's P45." It really is worth sticking with Littlejohn's train of thought until paragraph 31: "In the interests of full disclosure," he adds, "I should tell you that, like most people who write for a living, I've worked from home for the past 30-odd years, unless I've been broadcasting and needed to be in a studio." Sensational.
**A message from Barclays: Through our £100m COVID-19 Community Aid Package, we are working with charity partners to support families and individuals impacted by the crisis. As part of this commitment, our 100x100 programme is donating £100,000 to 100 charities in the U.K. Click here to learn more about the 100x100 U.K. COVID-19 Community Relief Programme.**
CORONA BITES
EYE OF THE STORM: Sobering interview with British Chambers of Commerce boss Adam Marshall in Bloomberg, with the business group boss — representing tens of thousands of firms employing almost 6 million people — warning that the winding down of government COVID-19 support in the fall means the worst of the economic crisis could still be ahead of us. "We've been through the first wave of the storm, which is damaging and difficult and distressing, but in fact it's the second leg of a hurricane or a typhoon that often causes the most damage," Marshall tells politics reporter Alex Morales. Marshall calls for some kind of support for employers to remain in place beyond the end of the furlough scheme in October and for the government to consider targeted support for those sectors — like aviation, travel, aerospace and indeed night clubs — hardest hit by the pandemic.
Also pushing for sector-by-sector support: The Labour Party, which today is making a push on targeted backing for the automotive industry. Shadow Business Minister Lucy Powell accuses the government of "refusing to recognize some sectors have been hit harder than others." The Mirror has the story.
Care homes data: Regulators in both England and Scotland are refusing to release individual care home COVID-19 death tolls "in part to protect providers' commercial interests before a possible second coronavirus surge," according to the Guardian's exclusive splash by Social Affairs Correspondent Robert Booth. The Care Quality Commission in England and the Care Inspectorate in Scotland responded to FOI requests saying they were concerned the supply of care beds could be threatened if customers abandoned the worst-affected private operators, the paper says.
SWISS CHEESE(D OFF): In what's fast-becoming a weekly routine, British travelers in three more countries face a mad dash to the airport today after Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Jamaica were added to England's quarantine list. The restrictions, requiring anyone returning from the countries to self-isolate for 14 days come into force at 4 a.m. U.K. time Saturday. The Indy's tireless Travel Editor Simon Calder has the lowdown on the implications, including the fact that now Liechtenstein too is off-limits "because the tiny principality is accessible only via Swiss or Austrian territory — the latter being added a week ago to the no-go list." Meanwhile, Brits in Jamaica, either on holiday or with family, will have needed to have left last night or it will probably be too late to avoid the 14-day rule, given the only flights are via the U.S., Calder says.
TODAY (NOT TOTALLY) IN WESTMINSTER
PARLIAMENT: Still in recess until Tuesday.
ONS: The Office for National Statistics' weekly infection survey of coronavirus rates in England is due out at noon.
TONY TROUBLE: More backlash is coming the government's way for its decision to give former Australian PM Tony Abbott a role as U.K. trade envoy, this time from another former Aussie PM, Kevin Rudd. He used Twitter to ask if the U.K. was "joking" with his appointment ahead of its hosting next year's COP26 climate summit and reeled off some of Abbott's greatest climate change skeptic hits. They don't make for great reading. Responding to the general criticism yesterday in a testy interview with ITV's Harry Horton, International Trade Secretary Liz Truss refused to address any of Abbott's previous comments, only saying he had "done an excellent job on trade" while Australian PM.
Now read this: A must-read this morning comes from POLITICO colleague Zoya Sheftalovich, who expands on her fabulous Playbook pen portrait from Wednesday with this longer profile of "Tear-down Tony."
ED DAVEY VICTORY LAP: The newly crowned Lib Dem leader Ed Davey will be all over the airwaves this morning explaining how he's going to restore the party to "national relevance." Check out his mammoth broadcast round below …
BORIS AND JENNY: Meanwhile we can expect to see the PM later today cropping up in a social media Q&A with England's Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jenny Harries, fielding public questions about next week's return to schools in England.
Don't p*ss off librarians: Playbook readers who enjoyed yesterday's shout-out to the sass-tastic librarian at Castle Rock School in Leicestershire, which Boris Johnson visited on Wednesday, will want to know that the arrangement of books on the shelf behind the PM during his speech was indeed a passive-aggressive dig at the powers that be. No, not at Boris, Dom and co. — but at the school leadership team. HuffPost UK's Sarah Turnnidge exclusively revealed that the school's former librarian, who asked not to be named, set out titles like "The Subtle Knife," "Betrayed," "Glass Houses," and "The Twits" as a message to the school's bosses over what she says was a "lack of support." "It's so bizarre, I actually feel a little bit sorry for the prime minister because it wasn't ever intended for him," the librarian says.
And just to treat you all: With MPs returning to the Commons next week, Playbook thought you'd like one final bumper edition of MPs on hols.
MPs on hols the finale, part I: First of all, Playbook's best wishes go to Armed Forces Minister Jonny Mercer, who has been discharged from hospital after spending some of his hols there due to a nasty head injury … East Lothian MP Kenny MacAskill visited the beautiful Smoo Cave in the Scottish Highlands … Shadow Sport Minister Ally McGovern went to see Shakespeare's farce "The Comedy of Errors" at the very quaint-looking Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre … Shadow Scotland Minister Chris Elmore visited Wales' Cardigan Castle … Pensions Minister Guy Opperman took in the Arbroath seaside during a Scottish road trip … Batley and Spen MP Tracy Brabin went adventuring in a 60s style campervan … Aberdeenshire MP Andrew Bowie took some flak on Instagram for seemingly failing to social distance during a trip to the pub …
MPs on hols the finale, part II: South Northamptonshire MP Andrea Leadsom took her family to Crete, in Greece … Stirling MP Alyn Smith was given impeccable Scottish hospitality during a staycation … Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield visited Stonehenge … Shadow Apprenticeships Minister Toby Perkins won silver in a Tennis doubles tournament … Chatham and Aylesford MP Tracey Crouch went camping … and West Bromwich West MP Shaun Bailey got to live the constituency MP dream of calling out the bingo. Thanks to all for living such interesting lives — and posting about it on Instagram.
**A message from Barclays: We are distributing our £100m COVID-19 Community Aid Package to charity partners who are helping the most vulnerable people impacted by COVID-19, and fighting against the social and economic hardships caused by the crisis. As part of this commitment, our 100x100 U.K. COVID-19 Community Relief Programme is providing 100 charities with £100,000 each to help them continue supporting vulnerable people and impactful causes within communities across the U.K. Find out more.**
BEYOND THE M25
Brussels: Interesting piece from the POLITICO team, who write that following the departure of trade chief Phil Hogan, the ethical bar of the European Commission has been decisively raised. Ursula von der Leyden's decision to push Hogan toward leaving has sparked a debate among EU officials, who see it as a sign that commissioners — once both powerful and bordering on unaccountable — are no longer as bulletproof as they once were. More from the team here.
Italy: Scandal of the week contender from Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, who's in hot water after reposting a series of offensive images on his Instagram account. Responding to online comments about his suntan, he posted memes where he was superimposed onto black people, including one featuring blackface. As POLITICO's Hannah Roberts writes, it all makes Di Maio appear out-of-touch given the anti-racism spotlight in recent months — while also bringing back memories of former PM Silvio Berlusconi, who infamously described the Obamas as "suntanned." Read her full piece here.
Belarus: Russian President Vladimir Putin has a force ready to intervene in Belarus, he told Russian state TV last night. Putin said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko "asked me to set up a certain police reserve," though he also said they agreed not to use it unless the situation escalated. The news came as Belarus prepared for another weekend of huge protests directed at Lukashenko's regime — though it could become difficult to hear about them. The BBC reports at least 13 journalists, including their correspondent Steve Rosenberg, were detained ahead of an opposition protest in an attempt to interfere with media coverage.
**Join Jack Blanchard, London Playbook editor, for a Virtual POLITICO Interview in conversation with Labour Anneliese Dodds MP, shadow chancellor of the exchequer on September 24. Sign up today for this online discussion on the future of Britain post-Brexit and post-Covid.**
MEDIA ROUND
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps broadcast round: Sky News (7.05 a.m.) … BBC Breakfast (7.30 a.m.) … LBC Radio (7.50 a.m.) … TalkRADIO (8.05 a.m.) … Today program (8.20 a.m.) … Times Radio (8.35 a.m.).
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey (mega) broadcast round: ITV Good Morning Britain (6.35 a.m.) … BBC Breakfast (6.50 a.m.) … BBC Radio 5 Live (7.45 a.m.) … Today program (7.50 a.m.) … Sky News (8.10 a.m.) … BBC London (8.35 a.m.) … LBC Radio (8.50 a.m.) … Times Radio (9.15 a.m.) … Bloomberg TV (9.30 a.m.) … BBC News (9.50 a.m.) … Channel 5 News (10.30 a.m.) … ITV News (10.45 a.m.) … ITV London (11.15 a.m.).
Also on Good Morning Britain (ITV): LBC's Iain Dale and former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith (both 6.45 a.m.).
Also on the talkRADIO breakfast show: Former CBI Director General Digby Jones (7.05 a.m.) … Pendle Council leader Mohammed Iqbal (7.25 a.m.) … Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine (7.48 a.m.) … Migration Watch Chairman Alp Mehmet (8.25 a.m.) … One Nation Conservative Caucus Chairman and former Deputy PM Damian Green (8.33 a.m.).
Reviewing the papers tonight: BBC News (10.40 p.m. and 11.30 p.m.): The Telegraph's Asa Bennett and Jacobin Magazine's Dawn Foster … Sky News (10.30 p.m. and 11.30 p.m): Fleet Street Fox Susie Boniface and the FT's Seb Payne.
TODAY'S FRONT PAGES
Daily Mail: £465,000 legal aid for P.C. Harper's killers.
Daily Express: Brexit talks 'at the end of the road.'
Daily Mirror: We will be ready for kids' return.
Daily Star: Scaredy cast — Castle ghosts 'frightening off stars from joining show.'
Financial Times: Fed adjusts monetary policy with move to tolerate higher inflation.
HuffPost UK: Stranger than fiction — No, a school librarian didn't arrange those books to troll Boris.
i: Care home deaths 'kept secret to protect providers.'
Metro: Tracked and traced on to a holiday jet.
The Daily Telegraph: 'Go back to work or risk losing your job.'
The Guardian: COVID-19 death tolls kept secret 'to protect care home providers.'
The Independent: Thousands of refugees denied sanctuary in U.K.
The Times: Get Britain back to work, senior Tories tell Johnson.
TODAY'S NEWS MAGS
The Economist: What Putin fears.
THANK POD IT'S FRIDAY
(Click on the links to listen.)
Big Tent Ideas: Former SpAd Laura Round is joined by Home Office Minister Jess Phillips.
EU Confidential: The POLITICO Europe team is joined by transatlantic expert Dan Hamilton.
IFS Zooms In: IFS Director Paul Johnson and the National Foundation For Educational Research's Angela Donkin discuss what to expect when schools fully reopen.
Infotagion: Damian Collins MP is joined by Common Sense Media founder Jim Steyer.
Running Mate: The HuffPost U.K. team look at whether Trump can win in their new podcast focusing on the presidential election.
The Economist Asks: Anne McElvoy talks to former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
The Edition: The Spectator team plus authors Liam Halligan and Sara Yirrell discuss Trump's chances of winning again.
YOUR WEEKEND IN POLITICS
Westminster Hour (BBC Radio 4, Sunday 10 p.m.): Commons education committee Chairman Robert Halfon … Shadow Business Minister Lucy Powell … Hansard Society Director Ruth Fox … and POLITICO U.K. Political Editor Jack Blanchard.
G&T: Tom Newton Dunn and Gloria De Piero will be joined by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay … TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady … British Chambers of Commerce Director General Adam Marshall … Shadow Business Minister Lucy Powell … Former ITN newsreader Alistair Stewart (Times Radio, Sunday 10 a.m.).
Weekend protests: Expect plenty of Extinction Rebellion themed discourse over the weekend, with the climate change activists planning bank holiday weekend protests across the country. The group itself wrote about what to expect here — "breastfeeding mums singing hymns, people talking about tree felling in parks" — and there's a handy of list of where it's all taking place too. On the other side of the coin, the Daily Mail writes that XR are planning to cause "bank holiday mayhem" with "social distancing out the window."
Westminster weather: 🌦🌦🌦 Rain showers throughout the day, strongest in the evening. Temperatures to peak in the high teens.
Travel: Lots of service adjustments. Check for the latest travel advice on the TfL website.
Edinburgh calling: Crossbench peer and former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth Jonathan Sacks will discuss solutions to the world's "moral identity crisis" with author Amin Maalouf in today's standout Edinburgh International Book Festival event. Watch live from 4 p.m. here.
Now hiring: The department for transport, which is looking for a digital content and communications officer. Apply here.
Now hiring II: The Scottish Sun, which is advertising for a politics reporter at a very interesting time to get into the Scottish politics scene. Apply here.
Happy birthday to: Commons science committee Chairman Greg Clark … Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, who turns 40 … Ilford South MP Sam Tarry … Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie … Former Digital Minister Margot James … Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale … Tory peer and former BBC Trust chief Rona Fairhead.
And celebrating over the weekend: Commentator and former MEP Patrick O'Flynn … Times Literary Supplement Editor Martin Ivens … Google spinner Rosie Luff … The Economist's Middle East Editor Roger McShane … Former Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith … Calder Valley MP Craig Whittaker … Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw, who turns 60 … Shadow Social Security Minister Karen Buck … Tory peer and Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein.
PLAYBOOK COULDN'T HAPPEN WITHOUT: My editor Zoya Sheftalovich, research assistant Andrew McDonald and producer Miriam Webber.
SUBSCRIBE to the POLITICO newsletter family: Brussels Playbook | London Playbook | EU Confidential | Sunday Crunch | EU Influence | AI: Decoded | D.C. Playbook | All our POLITICO Pro policy morning newsletters
More from ... Charlie Cooper


Authored by Elizabeth Moses. Published Sep 30, 2014.
View original article at The Access Initiative.
The 5th TAI Global Gathering, taking place in Bogotá, Colombia, October 29th-31st, 2014 is fast approaching. This year's event, Using Information, Data and Technology to Protect Forests and Strengthen the Rights of Forest-Dependent Communities," will bring together over 90 civil society organizations, community members, and indigenous groups from around the world to explore new innovations for using technology to share information about forests, encourage government transparency and participation, and improve accountability of natural resources decisions.
The Gathering will be facilitated by Allen Gunn also known as "Gunner", Executive Director of Aspiration Technology. Aspiration Technology has a long history working with civil society and has hosted almost 300 interactive and collaborative events in more than 40 countries across the globe.
We met with Gunner to ask him some really important questions about what to expect from the Global Gathering, his "unconference" facilitation philosophy, and the important role he will play in ensuring a successful Global Gathering.


text:
Die römisch-katholische Pfarrkirche Halbenrain steht in der Marktgemeinde Halbenrain in der Steiermark. Die Pfarrkirche hl. Nikolaus gehört zum Dekanat Radkersburg in der Diözese Graz-Seckau. Die Kirche steht unter .

Geschichte
Die Pfarrkirche wurde 1418 urkundlich genannt. Der Neubau einer barocken Pfarrkirche wurde im Jahr 1717 geweiht. 1962 war eine Innenrestaurierung.

Architektur
Der schlichte Kirchenbau mit einem Dreieckgiebel zeigt über dem Portal eine Kratzputzdarstellung des hl. Nikolaus aus 1958. Das dreijochige Langhaus hat Kreuzgratgewölbe mit Doppelgurten über gekoppelten Pilastern. Die dreiachsige Orgelempore steht auf Säulen. Der eingezogene zweijochige Chor hat einen geraden Schluss. Der quadratische Turm an der Nordseite des Chores hat einen erneuerten Zwiebelhelm. Im Osten wurde eine Loretokapelle mit der Grablege der Grafen Stürgkh angebaut. Die Taufkapelle erhielt 1964 figurale Glasfenster des Glasmalers Franz Weiss.

Die Fassadenfiguren Martin und Lukas sind aus der 1. Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Die Außenseite der Loretokapelle ist reich gegliedert und trägt die Nischenfiguren Joachim und Anna und zeigt das Wappen der Stürgkh im Giebelfeld aus dem 3. Viertel des 18. Jahrhunderts. Im Chor ist ein Gewölbefresko Dreifaltigkeit und Fresken der vier Evangelisten aus dem Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts.

Vor der Kirche steht eine Bildsäule aus 1967.

Ausstattung
Die Einrichtung stammt großteils aus dem 3. Viertel des 18. Jahrhunderts. Es gibt zwei Steinputten aus dem Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts. Die Kreuzwegbilder sind aus 1837. Die Grablege der Grafen Stürgkh ist unter einem Tonnengewölbe und hat eine erneuerte Ausstattung.

Literatur
 Die Kunstdenkmäler Österreichs. Dehio Steiermark (ohne Graz) 1982. Halbenrain, Patronatspfarrkirche hl. Nikolaus, S. 160.

Weblinks

Halbenrain
Halbenrain
Halbenrain
Halbenrain
Baudenkmal (Steiermark)
Barockbauwerk in der Steiermark
Halbenrain
Erbaut in den 1710er Jahren
Halbenrain
Kirchengebäude in Europa

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Today's global economy demands a web presence in order to be considered a formidable competitor. For small and mid-size companies, navigating web hosting services is often a daunting task, occasionally frustrating. Due in large part to the numerous web host servers readily available to fit your new business needs and budget.
There are several things you should take into consideration when selecting a web hosting service for your new online business including: customer service, price, domain names, and upgrade options.
Before closing a deal, you should always know your business partner. Whether attempting to contact the interested web host service company via phone, e-mail or learn more about the services each offers reading website information and client testimonials, gauging customer service is an essential component when making a final decision. Thriving business owners realize their key to successfully acquiring and retaining customers is excellent customer service; web hosting services are not immune from the same curiosity.
A respected web host service representative should return messages within 24 hours, answer questions honestly and value your time as a potential client – if not then move on to your next option. If the web host service doesn't respond in a timely manner, then chances aren't any better in troubleshooting assistance.
Pricing is another significant aspect to consider when opting for a web host package. Many new online businesses get into financial trouble when purchasing a web host because either they aim too high or too low. Quality service should never be compromised, but neither should it be ridiculously priced. If you're a small business owner, then you won't need all of the bells and whistles as those of larger websites. Although starting a website, estimating visitors and bandwidth usage is difficult, consider your current client base.
Free web hosting is tempting for many new online entrepreneurs; however, it's not always the best option even though being affordable. A free web host typically requires your website to display ads of various products and services. Visitors quickly equate the pop-up ads as annoying and quickly exit left to your nearest competitor's website. Summary: avoid free web hosting unless you're testing a specific market or sharpening your web design skills.
It's equally important to spend some serious thought and effort into a domain name for your online business. A good web hosting provider will offer you at least one free domain name per hosting account. Of course, receiving the free domain is the easy part. Chances are the first name you choose will already be taken, so consider several different options. A legit domain name should be easy to remember, spelled correctly, and relate to your business. If you opt to use a free web hosting service, be aware that typically your online address requires you to include part of the web host's address to your domain name.
Despite being affordable, the convoluted web domain name confuses existing customers searching for information online and detracts potential new sale leads. A lengthy web address also wrecks havoc on SEO rankings. When picking a profitable domain name, paying for the convenience of owning a personalized address is a worth-well investment.
Finally, before settling on a web host, be familiar with the available upgrade options. Initially, your online business endeavors shouldn't require a fully-loaded web hosting package, however, as your business grows, so will your need to accommodate web visitors. The most common reason small business owners find for upgrading websites is due to an increase in web traffic to your website, which means the demand for more bandwidth. A couple of advanced upgrade options preferred by larger online businesses include Managed Hosting and Unlimited Managed Hosting packages. Upgrade options depend greatly on individual needs and available budgets.


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Erbezzo is situated in Italy, in the Veneto region where it is within Verona. It is also a local administrative centre.
If you are planning a visit be sure to see the long range weather forecast for Erbezzo and the Veneto region.
Natural highlights such as lakes, forests and mountains close to Erbezzo.
Railway stations identified as being in or close to Erbezzo.
Know Erbezzo or operate a tourist attraction here?


text:
Q: Most concise way to return a certain value if "IndexOutOfBounds" in a multidimensional array For example; given a 2D array int[,] arr = {{1, 2, 3}, {4, 5, 6}, {7, 8, 9}}; & a Sum function
int Sum(int[,] arr, int ix, int iy) =>
                            arr[ix - 1, iy - 1] + arr[ix - 1, iy] + arr[ix - 1, iy + 1] +
                            arr[ix    , iy - 1] + arr[ix    , iy] + arr[ix    , iy + 1] +
                            arr[ix + 1, iy - 1] + arr[ix + 1, iy] + arr[ix + 1, iy + 1];

The following piece of code will error:
for(int i = 0; i < sx; ++i)
    for(int j = 0; j < sx; ++j)
        Console.Write("{0} ", Sum(arr, i, j));

Specifically, it will result in Err Err Err Err 45 Err Err Err Err.
But say I wish to default it to 0, if the array cannot be accessed by a certain index; i.e. I wish the output to be 12 21 16 27 45 33 24 39 28.
Another example would be the array bool[,] arr = {{false, false, false}, {true, false, false}, {false, false, true}} with the function
bool Or(bool[,] arr, int ix, int iy) =>
                            arr[ix - 1, iy - 1] || arr[ix - 1, iy] || arr[ix - 1, iy + 1] ||
                            arr[ix    , iy - 1] || arr[ix    , iy] || arr[ix    , iy + 1] ||
                            arr[ix + 1, iy - 1] || arr[ix + 1, iy] || arr[ix + 1, iy + 1];

With a default of false, it should result in true true false true true true true true true.(same printing method as above)
What is the most concise way of implementing such function for 2D arrays, or multidimensional arrays in general in C#?

A: Using sentinel value would be an easy and  concise to achieve what you want - just have your array surrounded by "default" values (0/false) and make sure you iterate inside that "safe boundary".
If changing the array is not an option writing helper method to get an element would keep length and structure of the code the same.
T Get<T>(T[,] arr, int ix, int iy)
{
   return ix < 0 || ix > arr.GetUpperBound(0) ||
          iy < 0 || iy > arr.GetUpperBound(1) ?
         default(T) : arr[ix,iy];
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
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Difference between revisions of "Windows 98/4.03.1132"
< Windows 98
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Leaked to BetaArchive by KiTTY who beat soulman uploading it to BA by 2 seconds. Has version number 4.03.1132.
This build, being extremely early in comparison with later builds, was forked from Windows 95 OSR 2.x (codenamed "Detroit"), and as such, does not stand out from its roots much, with the restart of its development based on the Windows 95 OSR 2.x codebase even causing the version number to temporarily shift downwards from 4.10 to 4.03, although it later shifted back to 4.10 in the later builds after this build was compiled.
Although the updates found in this build are mostly the same as those provided by Windows 95 OSR 2.x itself, it was by this point that Microsoft had not only started implementing the Windows Driver Model (a unified driver model for both, Windows 9x and Windows NT), but also by this point that Microsoft replaced the USB support with a later version, this time, a WDM-based one.
Although the System Properties for this build incorrectly refers to it as being "Windows 95" and "4.00.950 C" (a consequence of it being forked from Windows 95 OSR 2.x, where the external version number was not even the same as the internal one), this build still references itself as being "Microsoft Memphis" within the MS-DOS Prompt, and version "4.03.1132" as per what the VER command states.
This build was referenced within the documentation as being a "WDM/USB supplement" version of Windows 95, and still had much of the pre-release documentation from the Detroit builds, since Microsoft apparently reused them for this particular series of Memphis builds.
Retrieved from 'https://www.betaarchive.com/wiki/index.php?title=Windows_98/4.03.1132&oldid=5228'


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Sermon: The Present and Future Crisis (Part Two)
Economic Armageddon and Conspiracies
John W. Ritenbaugh
Given 18-Dec-04; 73 minutes
The United States' enormous debt, coupled with its escalating trade deficit, is inevitably leading to what economist call economic Armageddon. The conditions are ripe for vested economic interests, such as banks and multinational corporations, to participate in ruthless conspiracies designed to manipulate public fear and safeguard their interests. As seen in numerous Old and New Testament narratives, Israel has been no stranger to the dynamics of conspiracy. The motivation of survival (without the counsel of God and the welfare of the common person in mind) drives the greedy, carnally-wise leaders of elected government, fashioning a Satanically-inspired Beast. As Christians, we must urgently practice Proverbs 22:3, erasing debt, liquefying cash, and exercising economic prudence.
We are going to begin this sermon by picking up a verse with which I began last week:
Proverbs 22:3 A prudent man foresees the evil, and hides himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.
Last week's sermon was built around this scripture in that it appears to me there is a crisis of potentially huge proportions that already exists and appears to be building to the biblically prophesied "crisis at the close of the age" when Christ returns. I think that we would be prudent to look into it critically, analyze it, and prepare for it.
I heard Mr. Armstrong say on several different occasions that he felt that an economic crisis would be the major trigger that sets off the concluding events for the time of the end. We are in an economic circumstance in which the threatening clouds that one economist called "an economic perfect storm," have gathered but have not yet dumped their deluge of economic woes. He said that these factors are a record and growing demand for the world's most important non-renewable resource: oil.
These factors, combined with an historically low supply of oil (in which little hope exists that the supply will ever be substantially increased), combined with political instability in the oil-producing states (i.e., Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Nigeria, Venezuela, Cameroon, and others), combined with a deficit and debt in the economy of the world's largest consuming nation—the United States of America—all trigger inflation, which in turn triggers rises in interest rates, which will in turn eventually trigger deflation. Right at the storm's vortex, in the climax of these elements, will be war. Will these elements lead to the biblical Armageddon this time?
The following quotes will help us see that we are right on the precipice of a very critical situation in the modern world's economic condition. The first quote is taken from the website FromtheWilderness.com, November 23, 2004.
Steven Roach, the chief economist at investment banking giant Morgan Stanley, met a select group of financiers in downtown Boston last week, including a group at Fidelity. His prediction: America has no better than a 10 percent chance of avoiding economic "Armageddon."
In a nutshell, Roach's argument is that America's record trade deficit means the dollar will keep falling. To keep foreigners buying T-bills and prevent a resulting rise in inflation, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan will be forced to raise interest rates further and faster than he wants. The result: U.S. consumers, who are in debt up to their eyeballs, will get pounded.
Twenty years ago the total debt of U.S. households was equal to half the size of the economy. Today the figure is 85 percent. The dollar is hitting fresh lows against currencies from the yen to the Euro. Its parachute failed to open over the weekend, when a meeting of the world's top finance ministers produced no promise of concerted intervention. It has farther to fall, especially against Asian currencies, analysts agree.
Just in case that one did not inform you enough, here is one from the Washington Insider, November 11, 2004.
The USA, under the just re-elected President, George W. Bush, is bankrupt, and will be plunged into the relevant deep global chain-reaction collapse very soon. Bush may soon have very painful reason to wish he hadn't been elected since he may absolutely rely on the rampant arrival of a bankrupt economy. As I have emphasized repeatedly, the present world financial system is now entering a terminal phase of general global collapse from which it will never recover in its present form."
Here is another quote which is from EIR (Executive Intelligence Review) Strategic Alert, November 18, 2004:
The leading Italian financial daily, Il Sole 24 ORE stated on its November 9 front-page editorial by banker and former minister, Paolo Savona, that the re-election of George W. Bush had pushed the world closer to a monetary Hiroshima. He said that due to the U.S. imbalances, we are heading towards a big explosion which will disintegrate the world dollar activity and will unleash the second world depression.
Here is another one from EIR Strategic Alert from December 12, 2004. This is a quote from an interview with Professor Dr. Heiner Flassbeck, Germany's deputy finance minister in 1998/1999 but now UN Chief Economist on the Conference on Trade and Development. He said,
The savings rate in the United States is dangerously low. Any additional shock, no matter caused by high oil prices or rising interest rates, could now lead to a situation whereby America's consumers normalize their savings "overnight" so to speak, and that would be a catastrophe for the American, and therefore the world's economy.
I have one more quote from our fellow Brits in the London Times, from an article by Sir William Rees-Moog, titled "The Avalanche Is Coming." On November 22, 2004, he wrote,
The Federal Reserve is becoming extremely anxious. The problem is not a new one. It is based on the structural weakness of the world's leading currency, and since 1971 the dollar has been in an unusual and vulnerable position. It is a dominant, but incontrovertible currency, and such a currency is always at a disadvantage. The politicians of the dominant country can behave with relative irresponsibility, and they usually do. The dominant nation is also likely to accumulate debt on a horrific scale, and this is like the situation that precedes an avalanche. More and more loose snow gathers until there is a huge overhang at some point which cannot be predicted exactly. The appetite for the dominant currency is sated, and the people want to sell. Then fear sets in, and the avalanche is upon us.
In other words, he is saying that there is going to be a run on the dollar.
Are you aware that because of America's trade imbalances with foreign nations, which is an incredible $2.8 billion per day, that America must sell Treasury Bills in that amount every day to keep our current accounts balanced, because Americans refuse to save money? That $2.8 billion is 80 percent of the entire world savings each day. Can this be sustained? Is the rest of the world just going to sit around and see us drain their savings away so that our economy can be supported and that we can go on spending money wildly on credit? How long do you think that they are going to put up with this? Can you begin to see why wars occur? One country sees another country spending like this, and they will go to war to protect themselves from the economic collapse into which the other country is dragging them.
Do you realize that at the end of November the Americans tried to sell T-Bills to the world, and nobody came to buy them? Does that give you an indication that they have just about reached here? Well, they got off the hook because China, believe it or not, came to our rescue; but there is a bind in the way China is doing this. I do not fully understand it, but China tendered the money in such a way as to give others the opportunity to back out slowly.
There is another thing being created, because the Europeans see that their Euro is probably going to be the currency of choice that will be the reserve for other nations—and they do not want it. They do not want it because they do not have the economy that the United States has to support the world using their money as the currency for the world. They are doing tap dances over there, too, saying, "What are we going to do?" Things are moving toward a very interesting bind.
There is a minor blessing, though, and that is that though the factors are clearly looming all around us, the full fury of the storm does not appear to be something that is going to happen just the day after tomorrow. Those nations are going to do everything they can until they feel they cannot do any more to keep America's economy from collapsing. However, as every day goes by, we become further and further indebted to them. It does look as though we have a little bit of time to get better prepared than we are right now. How much time, I do not know. We have got to put on our thinking caps.
War, invariably through all of man's history, has a number of elements that consistently are part of its creation, but always wealth in some form is the central issue. The wealth may be in the form of minerals. It may be that one country feels necessary to sustain a lifestyle. It might be in the form of land, to expand. It might be in manpower to operate that system, but wealth will always be in the mix.
In our time, the wealth is in the form of oil. The world's largest reserves of easily obtainable and cheaply refineable oil are in the Middle East, but the people there are not cooperative with the Western nations as to how to use that oil wealth. They want that oil to support and expand their way of life.
The Western nations, who originally discovered the oil deposits, funded and developed the means to extract the oil. They desperately need it to support their already-built and functioning cultures, and it is showing that they are willing to go to war to have the oil. The United States has already done it. The situation is such that if the western nations do not get the oil in sufficient amounts at what they believe is a reasonable price, its culture will collapse economically unless some alternative to oil is developed.
Some alternatives to oil are available. However, they are not cheaply produced, and neither are they in abundant supply. Thus, very seriously affected factions have their own interests to develop and protect. For example, do you think for even a moment that Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum, Exxon Mobile, and other huge, oil-derived financial empires within the West are going to give up their turf without a fight? Well, they are going to put up a fight.
What about the banks, especially the central banks of nations, like the Federal Reserve of the United States or the Bank of England, and many others around the world which have loaned money to finance the building of these financial empires? Are they just going to give up? Are they just going to walk away from potentially huge economic losses involved in this oil-production, political issue? What about other institutions that are part of this huge complex of power that are beholden to the banks?
Do you remember that very popular song of a couple of decades ago called "Sixteen Tons"? It is a sad song about the financial futility of the common working man. Tennessee Ernie Ford was the man who sang, "Sixteen tons, and what do you get? Another day older, and deeper in debt." At one point in that song he said that he "owe[d] his soul to the company store."
What I am thinking about here are the politicians: the presidents, the prime ministers, the premiers, the cabinet officers, the senators, the congressmen, and judges, right on down through the entire governmental bureaucracy. Who is it that holds the strings of power to the politicians? To whom do they owe their political position and powers? To whom do they owe their soul? I will tell you: It is the central bank, through their cohorts in the corporations.
A former president of General Motors, whose name I have forgotten, once said, "What is good for General Motors is good for America." He was reviled right on the front pages of newspapers because people realized that what he said was true. Essentially, he was saying that corporations were running America, that one runs the other, that they were inseparable. Thus, he was implying that if the corporations are taken care of, so will America be.
What results from a situation in which various factions and individuals have vested interests at stake is that those interests are being threatened. It is a practical and historical fact that conspiracies arise among those intensely interested parties to protect those interests. These conspiracies have to be factored into the events that are swirling together to produce the crisis at the close of this age, because these people have the power to influence, to cause the government to act seemingly for the benefit of the whole nation. In reality, they are the beneficiaries while the majority suffers.
Forms of the word conspire appear in a number of places in Scripture; in fact 30 times, to be precise. Conspiracies are not something that has escaped God's attention. The Bible shows that they are a normal function of the carnal mind, but in this case "normal" does not mean "good."
Proverbs 1:7-10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto your head, and chains about your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, consent you not.
It just dawned on me that after we get away from the introduction to the book of Proverbs, this is the first subject addressed. I think this is very interesting.
Proverbs 1:11-15 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause. Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: Cast in your lot among us; let us all have one purse: My son, walk not you in the way with them; refrain your foot from their path.
This does not necessarily portray a governmental conspiracy, but it does clearly show the sense of any conspiracy. Various parties come together and plan to accomplish some evil purpose for the conspirators' common good.
The word conspire came into the English language from Latin. It literally means "to whisper together." It has the sense of secrecy or, one might say, evil intrigue within its usage. Thus, its sense is that those who conspire are up to no good; otherwise, they would be open about their thoughts. Its synonyms can be plot, plan, scheme, or as the King James Version may say, take counsel together. Conspiracy is defined by my Reader's Digest Oxford Complete Word Finder as "a secret plan to commit a crime, or to do harm, often for political ends."
Genesis 37:18 And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.
This is the very first appearance of the word conspired in the Bible. As you can see, the brothers of Joseph were up to no good. They did not say what they said right in front of him. They got their plan all together long before he showed up on the scene. This is interesting. It is just a little thing, but usually a conspiracy begins long before the actual event unfolds to the public eye. It is just a little thing, but somebody is plotting way in advance of what they want to pull off.
It is interesting to me that though this conspiracy was not against a governmental office, the one conspired against did indeed become a governmental official of exceedingly high rank. What I mainly want you to see is that the evil intent of their planning is very easily seen. God opens it up before us.
II Samuel 15:11-12 And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were called; and they went in their simplicity, and they knew not any thing. And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong: for the people increased continually with Absalom.
David, the king, is the one being conspired against. Many people, as we see, were innocently caught. I want you to remember that, too, because many people are caught in the conspiracy of the sinners. They are innocent about what is going on, but it does not stop lives from being destroyed, nor does it stop somebody's financial standing from being wiped away. People become victims of something of which they were not a part at all.
David is being conspired against, and people are innocently caught in the web of deceit, not understanding that they were being used to further somebody else's ambitions. Absalom had an evil mind; as you can see, he did not mind what we would call "using" other people who were not aware of really his evil intent. He was not against using them for his own gain. Absalom wanted power and wealth.
We do not have to go very much deeper to understand that conspiracies are nothing new to the Israelitish people. I could take you through another ten or fifteen places just in I and II Samuel and I and II Chronicles where it even says so-and-so was conspiring against the king, and then the next chapter says, "The conspiracy was strong among his servants."
On and on it goes. Sometimes it was the king himself who was conspiring against his own people. Should we think that in modern Israel—America, Britain, France, and others—there would not be conspiracies amongst those who are involved in seats of power—whether in the economy, in education, in media, in the military—and that they are not moving to achieve some end of which the overwhelming majority are innocent?
Matthew 12:14 Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him [Christ], how they might destroy him.
This episode is especially interesting because the conspiracy was formulated and carried out by the so-called holy people of Jesus' day. These people had very high opinions of themselves and boasted of their extraordinary holiness; but when we compare this one episode with three different reports of it, they conspired with the so-called evil Herodians if it suited their purpose. Politics makes strange bedfellows when conspirators begin to find that they have the same general goal in mind.
Psalm 2:1-3 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us."
This psalm might be said to depict the ultimate conspiracy. On the one hand, it shows a conspiratorial process that has taken place in every age of mankind—in other words, incipient revolt against the established order in any country at any time in man's history. On the other hand, the particular one being described is all of mankind conspiring against the Almighty through their representatives, the leaders of their nations. The setting can easily be the time of the end. The Hebrew shows—especially in the opening part of the psalm—haste, restlessness, agitation, whisperings, and plottings.
The Interpreter's Bible Commentary said that the psalm "suggests a view to grasping power by a group of highly-placed political gangsters who represent godless humanity in a position of temporary eminence." How about that! This came right out of the commentary. What they are against is the moral authority of God, and they are demanding license to operate within their liberty. What it shows us is what Paul summarized in Romans 8:7, that "the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Ultimately, brethren, governmental conspiracies always exist because it is human to conspire, and our government in our time at this juncture in history is no different.
This part of this brief two-part series is more speculative but is becoming less and less so as time progresses toward Christ's return. It becomes less and less speculative as information such as these revelations regarding the world's oil supply and demand is made known and the resulting impact on the American economy becomes apparent.
Is it possible that within this political and economic mix in which we are living right now, we might very well be witnessing the rise of the ruling clique of the Beast from whom the prophesied Beast himself might come?
For a long time, we have been hearing rumors of conspiracies involving people in powerful positions of influence. We have been hearing of shadow governments that are purported to be running nations regardless of those elected to office by the people. We have been hearing of connections to conspiracies by members of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Illuminati, the Fabians, The Club of Rome, The Club of 300, the Bildebergers, Opus Dei, Skull and Bones, the Masonic organizations, and the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England.
We have heard of the rich foundations established by very wealthy people like the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, and the Fords, who provide support to projects and movements dedicated to the destruction of the American way of life and the British way of life. In this last election, Teresa Heinz Kerry is a prime example. A foundation that the Heinz Corporation operates gave money to the people who attacked us, the Muslims. As far as we know, it was not stopped just because 9/11 occurred. That is well-documented.
The people in these organizations are not just American, nor are they all in government. They are in corporate business. They are in banking. They are in the media, as well. It is multinational in scope, consisting largely of Semitic people living in northwestern Europe, the United Kingdom, America, Israel, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and a few of those countries from eastern Europe, as well.
I know that I am personally experiencing a firm change in me from skepticism to belief partly because of this oil crisis and partly because of many other evidences, especially this war on terror and the potential for enslavement inherent in the Homeland Security Act. Things I have read in the past seem much more solid than when I first heard them, and I am coming to believe that there is an elite of powerful people governing America and guiding it away from the America of the past toward what is commonly called "Globalism" or "the New World Order." This push involves the same secularism practiced in Russia and in Europe. In other words, they are anti-God.
I am going to read some excerpts from an article by one Thom Hartmann which appeared on the Information Clearing House website, a Belgian website. The article is titled "Hyping Terror for Fun, Profit—and Power." The author is reviewing a documentary that appeared on the BBC. It was not on some pirate station somewhere but right on the British Broadcasting System, in three one-hour segments during the first three weeks of October. This is hair-raising! This is not something that came out of some kind of pirate press somewhere.
What if there really was no need for much—or even most—of the Cold War? What if, in fact, the Cold War had been kept alive for two decades based on phoney WMD threats? [See, we go from the period of the Second World War up to the time that we are living in right now. We are fighting the war on terror.]
What if, similarly, the War on Terror were largely a scam and the administration were hyping it to seem larger-than-life? What if our "enemy" represented a real but relatively small threat posed by rogue and criminal groups well outside the mainstream of Islam? What if that hype was done largely to enhance the power, electability, and stature of George W. Bush and Tony Blair?
And what if the world were to discover the most shocking dimensions of these twin deceits—that the same men promulgated them in the 1970s and today?
The myth-shattering event took place in England the first three weeks of October, when the BBC aired a three-hour documentary written and produced by Adam Curtis, titled "The Power of Nightmares." If the emails and phone calls many of us in the US received from friends in the UK and debate in the pages of publications like the Guardian are an indicator, this was a seismic event, one that may have even provoked a hasty meeting between Blair and Bush a few weeks later.
According to this carefully researched and well-vetted documentary, Richard Nixon, following in the steps of his mentor and former boss Dwight D. Eisenhower, believed it was possible to end the Cold War and eliminate fear from the national psyche. The nation need no longer be afraid of communism or the Soviet Union. Nixon worked out a truce with the Soviets, meeting their demands for safety as well as the US needs for security, and then announced to Americans that they need no longer be afraid.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon returned from the Soviet Union with a treaty worked out by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the beginning of a process Kissinger called "détente." On June 1, 1972, Nixon gave a speech in which he said, "Last Friday, in Moscow, we witnessed the beginning of the end of that era which began in 1945. With this step, we have enhanced the security of both nations. We have begun to reduce the level of fear, by reducing the causes of the fear—for our two peoples and for all peoples in the world."
But Nixon left amid scandal and Ford came in, and Ford's Secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld) and Chief of Staff (Dick Cheney) believed it was intolerable that Americans might no longer be bound by fear. Without fear, how could Americans be manipulated?
Rumsfeld and Cheney began a concerted effort—first secretly and then openly—to undermine Nixon's treaty for peace and to rebuild the state of fear and thus reinstate the Cold War.
And these two men—1974 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Ford Chief of Staff Dick Cheney—did this by claiming that the Soviets had secret weapons of mass destruction that the President did not know about, that the CIA did not know about, that nobody but them knew about. And, they said, because of those weapons, the US must redirect billions of dollars away from domestic programs and instead give the money to defense contractors for whom these two men would one day work.
The CIA strongly disagreed, calling Rumsfeld's position "a complete fiction" and pointing out that the Soviet Union was disintegrating from within, could barely afford to feed their own people, and would collapse within a decade or two if simply left alone. But Rumsfeld and Cheney wanted Americans to believe there was something nefarious going on, something of which we should be very afraid. To this end, they convinced President Ford to appoint a commission including their old friend Paul Wolfowitz [who is now on President Bush's staff in the same position] to prove that the Soviets were up to no good.
According to Curtis' BBC documentary, Wolfowitz's group, known as "Team B," came to the conclusion that the Soviets had developed several terrifying new weapons of mass destruction, featuring a nuclear-armed submarine fleet that used a sonar system that did not depend on sound and was, thus, undetectable with our current technology. [I remember that.]
Then comes a long series of quotes of one Dr. Anne Cahn who was the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency director, 1977-80. She was questioned on the program and refuted everything that Rumsfeld and Cheney were saying. I will give you one select part of her testimony. Here is her response to a question:
COHN: I would say that all of it was fantasy. I mean, they looked at radars out of Krasnoyarsk, and said, "This is a laser beam weapon," when, in fact, it was nothing of the sort. And if you go through most of Team B's specific allegations about weapons systems, and you just examine them one by one, they were all wrong.
INTERVIEWER: All of them?
CAHN: All of them.
INTERVIEWER: Nothing true?
CAHN: I don't believe anything in [Wolfowitz's 1977] Team B was really true.
Anyway, it ends this way:
Watching "The Terror of Nightmares" is like taking the red pill in the movie The Matrix. It's the story of idealism gone wrong, of ideologies promoted in the US by Leo Strauss and his followers (principally Wolfowitz, Feith, and Pearle [who is still around and on that team], and in the Muslim world by bin Laden's mentor, Ayman Zawahiri. Both sought to create a utopian world through world domination; both believe that the ends justify the means; both are convinced that "the people" must be frightened into embracing religion and nationalism for the greater good of morality at a stable state. Each needs the other in order to hold the power.
Then he urges you to tune in to that website to listen for yourself.
Brethren, American government has gradually undergone a fundamental change of philosophy that I think, at least in my experience, began with the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration in the 1930s. President Reagan's administration was somewhat of an anomaly, and he apparently looked upon government as being more the enemy than the friend. However, in the past decade, the change has been rapid and vast. Under the elder Bush, Bill Clinton, and especially the younger Bush, the track record has been anything but good. It has been very different.
Bush, Jr., has relentlessly expanded central government and the scope of its spending and the extension of its intrusion into private life. So vast is the change that Michael C. Ruppert, author of Crossing the Rubicon, has declared that by definition we no longer have a republic. To support this, he quotes Benito Mussolini, former Fascist dictator in Italy, as saying, "Fascism should more properly be called 'corporatism' since it is a merger of state and corporate power."
Many Americans feel it no longer matters for whom they vote during a national election because there is barely a difference between the two parties. Regardless of who wins, the banking and the corporate powers—the shadow government—are the real power, calling the shots that are in their best interests.
Let me give you an example from the website NewsWithViews.com: an article written by one Frosty Wooldridge titled "Illegal Immigration's Destruction of America's Middle Class." Are you wondering why nobody is doing anything about this immigration crisis? Is it possible that it is being planned to allow it to occur, that it is actually being promoted? It is.
Economist Paul Roberts wrote on January 21, 2003, "Will America become a Third World country in 20 years?"
In The Christian Science Monitor, December 11, 2003, "But as the US economy shifted toward service jobs, factory jobs have steadily lost—in fact, in just the past 39 months, some 2.8 million jobs vanished."
Did you hear the news this morning? On the news they said that the Department of Labor had readjusted the figures of how many jobs the American economy was going to create over the next year or so, and they lowered it from 3.5 million to 2.1 million.
Where are they going? China. India. Mexico. Deep into the Third World. "You Americans have lived an artificially high standard of living for a long time," a man working one our jobs outsourced to India wrote to me. "It's time you Americans drop to the poverty levels of the rest of the Third World."
America's middle class is being dismantled by jobs exported to cheap-labor Third World countries. CEOs and corporations that enjoy the luxuries of America's hard won freedom care not a tinker's damn whether you have a job or not—or a living wage.
Worse, our Congress upped the H-1B visas by another 20,000 again this year. Our Congress gave out nearly one million H-1B visas in the past decade. Congress facilitates outsourcing, insourcing, and offshoring! Why complain? You just re-elected most of them back into Congress.
So whom can we blame but those who elected them? The outsourcing, insourcing, and offshoring comprise only one part of this picture. The other part, and possibly the more devastating one, is what the government is promoting in regard to immigration.
Currently, 15 million illegal aliens commandeer jobs away from American citizens. Twenty-two thousand of them alone are in Denver, Colorado. Four million more illegals are expected in 2005—in one year! In Denver, they have displaced landscapers, pavers, roofers, beef processors, farmers, dry wallers, and have virtually taken over the fast food industry. This is hard enough to swallow, but it is made even more so when one knows for a fact that the situation is being promoted by our own government. Trade agreements, such as GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and NAPTA (National Alliance of Public Transportation Agreement) are eating away at the vitals of our ability to produce income and compete on world markets, while at the same time our President is openly promoting things like an amnesty program for Mexican illegals, thus freeing them to take even more jobs at minimum wage or less.
What is going on, brethren? Is our government serving us or them? Who is the "them"? Well, I will tell you who the "them" is: The "them" is the banks and the corporations. There are Americans, but who now is getting the jobs? Have you ever had any experience when you called a customer service line and got an Indian who could hardly speak English? You cannot blame the Indians. They are just taking advantage of what American corporations are making available to them, because the American corporation does not want to hire an American for a higher wage.
All of this is working together—everything from the high wages to you-name-it. What hurts is that the leaders are turning a blind eye toward our borders and doing virtually nothing to stop the continuous flow of illegals into this nation. There are many Scriptures regarding the powerful peoples' mistreatment of the weak in the Bible, meaning "the powerless." The book of Amos leaps to mind, and I want you to turn there. It is just this sort of thing that God has in mind when He had this written, because it was going on during Amos' day.
Amos 2:6 Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes."
As I have said to you before, poor does not necessarily mean having no money at all or being destitute. It simply means somebody who is weak or somebody who is powerless to fight back. They are the victims of events.
Amos 2:7 "That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor . . ."
He is describing how greedy the attitude is toward the corporate gain. The bottom line seems to be all that matters.
Amos 2:7 ". . . and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid to profane my holy name."
Amos 4:1 Hear this word, you kine [you women] of Bashan that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters [or husbands], "Bring, and let us drink."
Entertainment is a big thing, but not considered is what is happening out in the country.
Amos 5:9-12 That strengthens the spoiled against the strong so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. They hate him that rebukes in the gate [someone who tells the truth, in court especially], and they abhor him that speaks uprightly. Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor [the weak, the defenseless], and you take from him burdens of wheat [talking about taxes]: you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them: you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine of them. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
Amos 8:3-6 "And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day," says the Lord GOD: "there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence." Hear this, O you that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, saying, "When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? And the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; you, and sell the refuse of the wheat?" [Shoddy products is what they make available.]
All of these things, brethren, are gradually making persecution of Christians a reality. I do not know how often you saw the term the upright or the righteous involved in that. God is referring to them, making persecution of the righteous a reality in this supposedly Christian nation.
Now listen to these commands and warnings in Amos 5:
Amos 5:14 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish justice in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
How much more personal can that be? It is aimed right at Britain and the United States.
Amos 5:23-24 Take you away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not hear the melody of your viols. But let justice run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Isaiah 3:1-5 For behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, does take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water. The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counselor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. "And I will give children [those who are immature] and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour, the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable."
Brethren, what has happened to wisdom in this nation? What has happened to common sense? Well, I will tell you ever so briefly what is driving the leadership of this nation, a leadership in which some have become traitors to the very people who entrusted them with the power to lead. The first thing that is driving them is what I will label "survival."
One can understand that when vital information becomes available to one, one must take advantage of it. That is what Proverbs 22:3 teaches us. Is that not in principle what we have followed in reference to the knowledge of God and His kingdom? God has called us. He has made Himself and His plan known to us, and we have followed His sound advice, and it turned our attention to succeeding within His purpose. So far, so good, because we are directing our lives according to His truth.
Those people who make up the conspiratorial center of those organizations named earlier and who also have seats of power in government, business, education, religion, the military, and the media are following exactly the same principle. The fatal flaw is that they are not following the truth of God toward the establishment of His kingdom. They are doing, though, what is carnally wise for someone in their position. They are pursuing their vision, and that vision is not beneficial for the powerless because we eventually become just so much cannon fodder to be used just like Absalom used people who were sincere in their life and blind to what was really going on.
Revelation 13:1-4 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, "Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"
Brethren, Satan is the great conspirator who is coordinating and directing his purpose of bringing all mankind into direct confrontation with God. Remember Psalm 2. His purpose is global in scope and is going to succeed in forming a confederacy through deception of a massive, oppressive economic and military power.
Those organizations that I mentioned before were, for the most part, formed to keep those in seats of power informed as to what was going on in the world. Those people knew about the potential for the present oil crisis decades ago, and they began planning what they needed to do. This particular crisis is just one crisis. The entire world is in crisis from everything like overpopulation, availability of food, many diseases, illiteracy, a huge disparity of wealth between the haves and the have-nots; thus, they have developed plans to provide for themselves.
In one sense, brethren, what is driving them is as simple as that, but the second part of what is driving them is a major factor of human nature. It is called greed. It is not good enough that they merely survive. They want to survive and come out the other end with power extending far beyond what they now have over those who may have some slim chance of surviving.
Their concept is not merely national but global in scope. They are imbued with the notion that they are fighting for their very lives and the extension of their posterity. I have read of things that they openly discuss in their meetings that makes one gasp for breath, like deliberately reducing the population of the world through the promotion of killing diseases like AIDS and smallpox and of warfare. Never forget that Satan is the real author of all of this, and he is a deceitful murderer and destroyer. The fruits of his authorship will show in the way advances are accomplished.
I do not want to sell you on the idea that they are all unified in what they are attempting to accomplish. Satan's kingdom is one of confusion, division, and competition among various parts; thus, in practical, everyday affairs these people do not always get their way. They do not always agree, and they frequently fight against one another. Gradually, though, because Satan is in charge of this and because God is permitting it, world affairs are moving in Satan's direction. He is succeeding in bringing the pieces together to fight against Christ at His coming.
It is essential for us to keep an eye on these things and know the general direction that these events are moving. It is going to get worse before it gets better, and it behooves us to keep close to God daily in prayer, in study, and in submission to His will. It is His will that we do all that we can to prepare physically as well as spiritually. It is godly that we do what we can to be prepared to take care of ourselves, our own, and others as we are able.
Take the advice of those people who have studied these issues not only from a present-day scenario but historically, as well. They have learned what has worked best in the past as this and other nations went through what we still apparently have a bit of time to prepare for. There are some physical things that we can do. These people all recommend that we get as far out of debt as we can and at the same time start setting cash money aside as a cushion.
You might also want to set aside some food that will keep you going maybe for a month or two after the initial shock of the run on the American dollar begins to take place and the stock in the stores suddenly is not there because people have bought it up. It might not be a bad idea that some of the cash you set aside not be put in a bank but kept in some place that you consider safe, because many banks are going to crash; and the FDIC does not have all that much money. Banks are required by law to only keep ten percent in reserve; and they, too, owe their business, their soul to the Federal Reserve System. They also borrow money from them, and that is why they crash. Most of them are in no better shape than you. My final word is this: put on your thinking caps and get to work.
JWR/smp/klw
The Present and Future Crisis (Part One)
The Money Has Failed (Part Four)
Cleansing the Temple and Economics
Individual State Bankruptcies (Part Two)
A Prophecy for Our Time
Everything Is A Lie
Biblical Finance
What's the Endgame?
Bildebergers


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Are you excited about problem-solving and exploring the latest streaming technology? Do you thrive in a role where you can be close to the craft and at the same time help the team deliver outstanding quality?
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Join SeenThis, a fast-growing streaming technology company that is setting the new standard for online content delivery – where you will play an important role in our journey onwards!
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SeenThis is a streaming technology company that optimizes the delivery of videos and images to improve speed, quality and conversion for our clients. We were founded 2017 in Stockholm, and we now have local hubs in Oslo, London, New York, Singapore and Sydney that serve over 1,000 clients, who collectively push petabytes of data through our systems each month.
Today, our technology is first and foremost used for digital advertising, but we've just launched products for websites where load speed and quality of video and images are of equally high importance.
"That sounds cool, but what about the people?"
Well, here you can find pretty much everyone. Nerds, introverts, extroverts, sales gurus, start-up junkies, 9-to-5ers, daydreamers, visionaries – yes, we even have an office plant named Fred.
Our tech team describes our culture as encouraging, inclusive, and innovative. They believe that both personal and professional growth comes from relentlessly solving new and evermore complex problems by testing new solutions together with people that both challenge you and make you laugh. They believe in you, and your ability to deliver what is expected, and will give you the freedom to choose how.
We are growing fast and just raised a new round of financing to fuel the buildout of our organization and the resulting global expansion. Although we've already come a long way, we feel like our journey has just begun and hope that you want to join our team and our vision to 'create a fast internet'.
We are growing fast and are looking for two Lead Engineers who can drive the technical development of our two main products: Ads & Website Optimizer.
Depending on your profile (and interest of course!), you'll either lead the Ads technical team, responsible for all our products for media agencies and publishers – or the Website Optimizer team, who integrate our streaming technology into websites to improve load speed and content quality.
Your main responsibility, apart from being a productive team member, is to ensure a scalable architecture, optimal quality and continuous improvement. The teams are growing and the importance of structure and establishing a successful 'way of working' go hand in hand.
To feel comfortable in this role, you have most likely been working with full-stack/backend development for the last years and feel it's time to take the next step in your career. You have most likely acted as an informal or formal leader in a team and are motivated by seeing your colleagues develop and grow.
Since we always end up talking about "the stack", we might as well cover it. Most often it's set up in JavaScript, Node.js, Vue.js, Postgres and GraphQL - but it can vary between projects. Our systems are 100% serverless and hosted on AWS.
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